Insert for surgical needle clamp



April 26, 1955 H. F. BRAMSTEDT INSERT FOR SURGICAL NEEDLE CLAMP Filed Sept. 12, 1952 7 mm mm 5 I /m. N

1 Arramfsf- United States Patent 2,706,987 INSERT FOR SURGICAL NEEDLE CLAMP Harold F. Bramstedt, West St. Paul, Minn. Application September 12, 1952, Serial No. 309,319 3 Claims. (Cl. 128-340) This invention relates to an insert member for surgical needle clamps.

It is an object of my present invention to provide a new surgical needle clamp insert having improved gripping teeth which will be relatively durable yet will securely and positively hold a needle therebetween when mounted between the jaws of a needle clamp.

It is still another object to provide an insert for needle clamps having a plurality of closely spaced teeth with each tooth being constructed in the shape of a small pyramid having a square base with a predetermined hardness and a predetermined angle of inclination for the sides of said pyramid and the height of each tooth being maintained between certain prescribed predetermined limits.

More specifically, it is an object to provide a needle clamp jaw insert having pyramidal teeth and made from a material having a Rockwell hardness of between 53 and 70 with the angle of inclination of the sides of the pyramid forming each tooth being between 40 and 45 deg. and the height of each tooth being between .004 and .008 inch.

I have found through experimentation that, to provide durable gripping teeth which will securely hold a surgical needle against slipping, the hardness of said teeth, the size and shape of said teeth, as well as their position relative to one another in the jaws of the clamp,

crit cal and that deviation from the above prescribed brittle, or sharp-pointed, or too long, and will not grip satisfactorily if they are too short or too blunt and will become dull if the hardness of the material is below a Rockwell hardness of 53.

These and other objects and advantages of my invenappear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a needle clamp with the jaws in clamping position against a surgical needle held therebetween;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevational view showing the intermeshed relationship of the jaw teeth;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the teeth of one of the jaws; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along the diagonal line 44 of Fig. 3 through the vertices of a number of the teeth.

As illustrated in the accompanying drawings, I show adapted to be held in clamped position by the conventional saw-toothed clip arrangement 11.

Obviously, as pointed out in the Snowden patent, the required resiliency of the actuating levers 9 and 10t0 permit the gripping force to be adjustably varied is not desirable from the standpoint of providing a durable gripping surface when engaged with the relatively hard surgical needles. Therefore, suitable insert members of Patented Apr. 26, 1955 ping power and durability. As best shown in Fig. 2, the

teeth of the opposed inserts one another when in closed The teeth Figs. 2, 3 and 4 and each tooth is in the shape of a small Each of base and the inserts are rittleness or become dull from being too soft.

these teeth must be carefully designed since the size and shape thereof are also critical in producing eflicient and long-lasting gripping action on the needles without roughening the outer surface of the needle.

The optimum angle of inclination of the sides of the pyramid forming each tooth is between 40 and 45 deg.

which is too blunt and which The length of the tooth has been also found to needle.

be critical and teeth shorter than .004 inch do not satisfactorily grip the needle, and teeth longer than .008 inch are subject to breakage and apt to damage the needles.

Since the needle clamp A rarely, in straightgrooves between produces the her of teeth securely hold if ever, grips a needle across relation, it is desirable to provide the of course is controlled to some extent at least by the length of each tooth It will be simple, yet highly efficient tooth inserts and it should thereof. provided an extremely and the angulation of the sides seen that I have inch of length.

e structure set forth in claim 1 and each of the pyramidal teeth being over .008 inch.

at least .004 inch in length and not 3. The structure set forth in claim 2 and the pyramids forming said teeth having a square base with the grooves therebetween being disposed at 45 deg. relative to the longitudinal center line of the insert.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

